AREA HISTORY:  The Township of Hellam, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

Copyright 2005.  All rights reserved.
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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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THE TOWNSHIP OF HELLAM – Page 600

THOUGH a considerable portion of the present area of York County was settled 
before 1739, it was not until that year that the Provincial Assembly of 
Pennsylvania passed a special act which empowered the county court at Lancaster 
to lay off “that portion of Lancaster County west of the Susquehanna into 
townships.”  Under the provisions of this act, the same year of its passage, the 
Township of Hallam, which originally included most of York County and 
Pennsborough Township, which originally embraced all of Cumberland County, were 
erected, without any surveyed boundaries.  Lancaster County was erected in 1739.  
The Indian treaty of 1736 extended its limits west of the Susquehanna, in 
consequence of which all settlers on the side of the river, after permits to 
locate land were granted, were under the authority of the Lancaster court, and 
from 1736 to 1739 the authorities of Hempfield Township, which included the 
present site of Columbia, had authority west of the river.  Charles Jones, the 
constable of Hempfield, lived in the present area of Hellam in 1736.  Samuel 
Blunston, an intelligent Quaker, who located at the eastern terminus of Wright’s 
Ferry, became an agent of the Penns, by whom he was empowered to grant permits 
for land to settlers who located west of the river.  He was born in the Township 
of Upper Hallam, in the county of York in England, after which this township was 
named.  During the first thirty years of its history, the name was written 
“Hallam,” in official records, eventually the present mode of spelling became 
general, though the original would seem preferable and was never legally changed.